Hongi Hika
Hongi Hika was a New Zealand Māori rangatira and war leader of the iwi of Ngāpuhi. He was a pivotal figure in the early years of regular European contact and settlement in New Zealand. As one of the first Māori leaders to understand the advantages of European muskets in warfare, he used them to overrun much of northern New Zealand in the early nineteenth century Musket Wars.
In order to obtain the muskets Hongi Hika encouraged Pākehā settlement, built mutually beneficial relationships with New Zealand's first missionaries, introduced Māori to Western agriculture and helped put the Māori language into writing. He traveled to England and met King George IV. His military campaigns resulted in the Musket Wars, and preventing them was an important motivator for the British annexation of New Zealand and subsequent Treaty of Waitangi with Ngāpuhi and many other iwi.
Early life and campaigns: 1772–1814
Hongi Hika was born near Kaikohe into a powerful family of the Te Uri o Hua hapū of Ngāpuhi. His mother was Tuhikura, a Ngāti Rēhia woman. She was the second wife of his father Te Hōtete, son of Auha, who with his brother Whakaaria had expanded Ngāpuhi's territory from the Kaikohe area into the Bay of Islands area. Hongi said later in life that he had been born in the year explorer Marion du Fresne was killed by Māori, and this is generally now accepted as his birth year, although some earlier sources place his birth around 1780.Hongi Hika rose to prominence as a military leader in the Ngāpuhi campaign, led by Pokaia, the uncle of Hōne Heke, against the Te Roroa hapū of Ngāti Whātua iwi in 1806–1808. In over 150 years since the Māori first made sporadic contact with Europeans, firearms had not entered into widespread use. Ngāpuhi fought with small numbers of them in 1808, and Hongi was present later that same year on the first occasion that muskets were used in action by Māori. This was at the Battle of Moremonui at which Ngāpuhi were defeated; Ngāpuhi were overrun by the opposing Ngāti Whātua while reloading. Those killed included two of Hongi's brothers and Pokaia. Hongi and other survivors only escaped by hiding in a swamp until Ngāti Whātua called off the pursuit to avoid provoking utu.
After the death of Pokaia, Hongi became the war leader of the Ngāpuhi. His warriors included Te Ruki Kawiti, Mataroria, Moka Te Kainga-mataa, Rewa, Ruatara, Paraoa, Motiti, Hewa and Mahanga. In 1812 Hongi led a large taua to the Hokianga against Ngāti Pou. Despite the defeat of Ngāpuhi at Moremonui, he recognised the potential value of muskets in warfare if they were used tactically and by warriors with proper training.
Contact with Europeans and journey to Australia: 1814–1819
Ngāpuhi controlled the Bay of Islands, the first point of contact for most Europeans visiting New Zealand in the early 19th century. Hongi Hika protected early missionaries and European seamen and settlers, arguing the benefits of trade. He befriended Thomas Kendall, one of three lay preachers sent by the Church Missionary Society to establish Christianity in New Zealand. Kendall wrote that when he first met Hongi in 1814, he already had 10 muskets of his own, and said that Hongi's handling "does him much credit, since he had no man to instruct him". Like other Europeans who met Hongi, Kendall recorded that he was struck by the gentleness of his manner, his charm and mild disposition. In written records, he was often referred to as "Shungee" or "Shunghi" by early European settlers.Hongi's older half-brother, Kāingaroa, was an important chief, and his death in 1815 led to Hongi becoming the ariki of Ngāpuhi. Around this time Hongi married Turikatuku, who was an important military advisor for him, although she went blind early in their marriage. He later took her younger sister Tangiwhare as an additional wife. Both bore at least one son and daughter by him. Turikatuku was his favourite wife and he never travelled or fought without her. Early missionary visitors in 1814 witnessed her devotion to him.
In 1814 Hongi and his nephew Ruatara, himself a Ngāpuhi chief, visited Sydney with Kendall and met the local head of the Church Missionary Society Samuel Marsden. Marsden was later to describe Hongi as "a very fine character... uncommonly mild in his manners and very polite". Ruatara and Hongi invited Marsden to establish the first Anglican mission to New Zealand in Ngāpuhi territory. Ruatara died the following year, leaving Hongi as protector of the mission at Rangihoua Bay. Other missions were also established under his protection at Kerikeri and Waimate North. While in Australia Hongi Hika studied European military and agricultural techniques and purchased muskets and ammunition.
As a result of Hongi's protection, ships came in increasing numbers, and his opportunities for trade increased. He was most keen to trade for muskets but the missionaries were often unwilling to do so. This caused friction but he continued to protect them, on the basis that it was more important to maintain a safe harbour in the Bay of Islands, and in any event others visiting the islands were not so scrupulous. He was able to trade for iron agricultural implements to improve productivity and to grow crops, with the assistance of slave labour, that could be successfully bartered for muskets. In 1817, Hongi led a war party to Thames where he attacked the Ngāti Maru stronghold of Te Totara, killing 60 and taking 2,000 prisoners. In 1818 Hongi led one of two Ngāpuhi taua against East Cape and Bay of Plenty iwi Ngāti Porou and Ngaiterangi. Some fifty villages were destroyed and the taua returned in 1819 carrying nearly 2,000 captured slaves.
Hongi encouraged and assisted the first Christian missions to New Zealand, but never converted to Christianity himself. On 4 July 1819 he granted 13,000 acres of land at Kerikeri to the Church Missionary Society in return for 48 felling axes, land which became known as the Society's Plains. He personally assisted the missionaries in developing a written form of the Māori language. Hongi was not alone in seeing the relationship with the missionaries as one of trade and self-interest; indeed virtually no Māori converted to Christianity for a decade. Large scale conversion of northern Māori only occurred after his death. He protected Thomas Kendall when he left his wife, taking a Māori wife and participating in Māori religious ceremonies. In later life, exasperated with teachings of humility and non-violence, he described Christianity as a religion fit only for slaves.
Journey to England and subsequent warfare: 1820–1825
In 1820 Hongi Hika, his nephew Waikato, and Kendall travelled to England on board the whaling ship. He spent 5 months in London and Cambridge where his facial moko tattoos made him something of a sensation. During the trip he met King George IV who presented him with a suit of armour. He was later to wear this in battle in New Zealand, causing terror amongst his opponents. In England he continued his linguistic work, assisting Professor Samuel Lee who was writing the first Māori–English dictionary, A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand. Written Māori maintains a northern feel to this day as a result; for example, the sound usually pronounced "f" in Māori is written "wh" because of Hongi's soft aspirated northern dialect.Hongi returned to the Bay of Islands on 4 July 1821. He travelled together with Waikato and Kendall, aboard the Speke which was transporting convicts to New South Wales and from there on the Westmoreland. He was reported to have exchanged many of the presents he received in England for muskets in New South Wales, to the dismay of the missionaries, and to have picked up several hundred muskets that were waiting for him. The muskets had been ordered by Baron Charles de Thierry whom Hongi met at Cambridge, England. De Theirry traded the muskets for land in the Hokianga, although De Theirry's claim to the land was later disputed. Hongi was able to uplift the guns without them being paid for. He also obtained a large quantity of gunpowder, ball ammunition, swords and daggers.
Using the weapons he had obtained in Australia, within months of his return Hongi led a force of around 2,000 warriors against those of the Ngāti Pāoa chief, Te Hinaki, at Mokoia and Mauinaina pā on the Tamaki River. This battle resulted in the death of Hinaki and hundreds, if not thousands, of Ngāti Paoa men, women and children. This battle was in revenge for a previous defeat in around 1795, in which Ngāpuhi had sustained heavy losses. Deaths in this one action during the intertribal Musket Wars may have outnumbered all deaths in 25 years of the later New Zealand Wars. Hongi wore the suit of armour that had been gifted by King George IV during this battle; it saved his life, leading to rumours of his invincibility. Hongi and his warriors then moved down to attack the Ngāti Maru pā of Te Tōtara, which he had previously attacked in 1817. Hongi and his warriors pretended to be interested in a peace deal and then attacked that night while the Ngāti Maru guard was down. Hundreds were killed and a much larger number, as many as 2,000, were captured and taken back to the Bay of Islands as slaves. Again, this battle was in revenge for a previous defeat before the age of muskets, in 1793.
In early 1822 he led his force up the Waikato River where, after initial success, he was defeated by Te Wherowhero, before gaining another victory at Orongokoekoea. Te Wherowhero ambushed the Ngāpuhi carrying Ngāti Mahuta women captives and freed them. In 1823 he made peace with the Waikato iwi and invaded Te Arawa territory in Rotorua, having travelled up the Pongakawa River and carried their waka overland into Lake Rotoehu and Lake Rotoiti.
In 1824 Hongi Hika attacked Ngāti Whātua again, losing 70 men, including his eldest son Hāre Hongi, in the battle of Te Ika a Ranganui. According to some accounts Ngāti Whātua lost 1,000 men, although Hongi Hika himself, downplaying the tragedy, put the number at 100. In any event the defeat was a catastrophe for Ngāti Whātua; the survivors retreated south. They left behind the fertile region of Tāmaki Makaurau with its vast natural harbours at Waitematā and Manukau; land which had belonged to Ngāti Whātua since they won it by conquest over a hundred years before. Hongi Hika left Tāmaki Makaurau almost uninhabited as a southern buffer zone. Fifteen years later when Lt. Governor William Hobson wished to remove his fledgling colonial administration from settler and Ngāpuhi influence in the Bay of Islands, he was able to purchase this land cheaply from Ngāti Whātua, to build Auckland, a settlement that has become New Zealand's principal city. In 1825 Hongi avenged the earlier defeat of Moremonui in the battle of Te Ika-a-Ranganui, although both sides suffered heavy losses.